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L / RAIN

On a recent afternoon, Yamashita Park in Yokohama waterfront was teeming with visitors – from lovey-dovey young couples to picnic families and foreign tourists taking selfies in front of the Hikawamaru ocean liner, a Museum ship permanently moored on the Park .

The Tokyo international conference on African development was also held near the city and was attended by representatives of foreign leaders as well as representatives of international organizations, civil society and the private sector.

Eclipsing this veneer of prosperity, however, are the demographic crisis and precarious financial health that the figures show will begin to chip away at Yokohama’s growth in the not-so-distant future.

It is this grim prospect that moves mayor Fumiko Hayashi to announce last month that her city will throw its hat in the ring in a race to host a so-called comprehensive resort featuring casinos.

“You can think of Yokohama as this big, pink city is known for hosting a host of events, but every year we find ourselves saddled with a deficit of around £ 50 billion when drawing up our budgets. This is reality, ” Hayashi said at a news conference.

“It’s a strong sense of crisis regarding Yokohama’s future that made me decide that we should move towards hosting IK.”

Hayashi’s decision has since earned praise and criticism.

Its supporters are pinning their hopes on the resort’s casino potential to turn Yokohama into a hub for tourists amid its declining status as a hub for foreign trade and manufacturing.

But for all their efforts to cast integrated resorts in a positive light, many residents are still balking at the prospect of having casinos in their area, expressing concern about gambling addiction and an increase in crime.

With the mayor’s announcement, Yokohama has now joined the ranks of other local governments that have already announced their bids to lure casinos, including the city and Prefecture of Osaka, Wakayama Prefecture and Nagasaki Prefecture. Up to three such resorts – which include hotels as well as conferences and shopping facilities – will be allowed to open nationwide under a law passed last year to introduce casinos in Japan.

The candidacy of Japan’s second-largest city quickly ignited the interest of U.S. casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp., which said in a statement released shortly after Hayashi’s announcement that he would no longer pursue Wasaki’s casino, but targeted Tokyo and Yokohama. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson said his firm would ” target new development opportunities that enable us to maintain our industry-leading return on investment.

“We believe that investing in Tokyo or Yokohama gives us the best opportunity to do just that.”

The rapid urbanization of the city over the years, meanwhile, is now taking its toll. Much of its infrastructure, including roads, bridges and pipes, is growing dilapidated and in need of repair – a factor that threatens to further strain the city’s coffers.

Although synonymous with iconic places like Yokohama Chinatown and the red brick Warehouse, Yokohama has, in fact, been an underachiever when it comes to tourism. Official figures show that the number of tourists to the plateau city over the past five years, hovering around 35 million people after years of gradual growth.

During the press conference, Hayashi particularly lamented the fact that many settle for a casual day trip to Yokohama rather than staying overnight for an extra day or longer.

According to the city, an overwhelming 87.3 percent of tourists in Yokohama returned home during the day in 2017, compared to 53 percent of tourists in Tokyo who did so. This trend toward a brief stay in Yokohama, which naturally leads to cost-cutting, is said to stem largely from a lack of nightlife, with many restaurants in Chinatown, for example, closing at 8 p.m.

As a result, Yokohama attracted just 730,000 visitors from abroad In 2017-less than 1 percent of the nationwide figure of 80 million people – well behind other Metropolitan areas including Tokyo and Osaka, which received 20 million and 12 million, Respectively.

“Call me sentimental, but let me remind you that Yokohama was one of the first to open its port to the world in 1859 and to invite civilization from abroad. This is our story, ” Hayashi told a news conference.

“But look what’s happening now: most foreign tourists go to their destination either Tokyo or Osaka. Or maybe they go to places like Hokkaido or Akita where there is something uniquely appealing. Does Yokohama have something similar? I’m not sure, ” she said. “That’s why we need IR.”

According to government estimates, APU in the first year will receive economic effects of up to 1 trillion euros and additional tax revenues of up to 120 billion euros per year.

Masaya Fukuda, head of public relations at the Yokohama chamber of Commerce and industry, said he shared the mayor’s concerns.

Although Yokohama flourished as a manufacturing center during the heyday of Japan’s postwar rise to become an economic superpower, many firms have since moved their factories overseas, after developing China and Korea as manufacturing bases, or made inroads in regions with cheaper labor such as Kyushu, Fukuda said.

Yokohama’s hosting of various international conferences, such as TICAD, does not necessarily boost its economy. Spending may even slow as some tourists give the neighborhood a wide berth because of tight security, he said.

“There are new hotels being built at the moment because Yokohama will host several games in 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics,” Fukuda said. “But once this event is over, what will we stay for? Nothing. We really need to have IR as a target after the Olympics.”

But the prospect of a casino in Yokohama has its share of critics, too.

One of their biggest problems is the increasing dependence on gambling – already a problem in Japan, where pachinko games are very popular. Its market size was 19 trillion euros in 2017, according to the 2018 edition of the leisure White paper.

Tales of pachinko addicts who end up sitting deep in debt, or playing a game for hours on end while their children are left in locked cars, dehydrated amid the scorching heat of summer, are common in Japan.

Under a law passed last year, the government put in place what it touted as the strictest rules in the world to curb drug addiction, limiting visits to casinos to a maximum of three times a week and 10 per month. Customers who are residents of Japan will be required to present their my ID numbers upon entry, too. An entrance fee of EUR 6,000 will also be charged.

But in a statement released last year, the Japanese Federation of bar associations questioned the government’s assertion that the nation’s anti-gambling addiction measures are the most stringent, noting that Singapore – which Japan seeks to emulate-visits only eight times a month and carries a fee closer to £ 8,000.

Awe runs deep among Yokohama residents, too.

A survey conducted by the city of 350 residents in June found two of their most important impressions of casinos are “crime will increase” and “drug addiction will deepen”, followed by the third most popular answer, “tourism will thrive”.

“Having a casino is uncharted territory for us. We don’t know what will happen,” says Masako Yokuchi, a 45 – year-old employee at the company in Yokohama. “The casino will attract a whole bunch of people, including from overseas, and I’m just afraid it could have a bad impact on the security of our neighborhood,” she said.

Another resident, 46-year-old Hideo Takahashi, admitted to mixed feelings.

“On the bright side, I hope the casino will serve as a tourist attraction because Yokohama, with its struggling financial situation, doesn’t really have anything we can hope for in the future,” Takahashi said.

“But I’m worried about gambling addiction. I’m not a player myself, but I know some people who get really addicted to pachinko to the point of no return. I don’t want Yokohama to be associated with something like that.”

Yokohama Harbour Transport Association, headquartered on Yamashita pier – a 47-hectare area presented by Hayashi as a potential site for the resort’s casino – is one of Yokohama’s most vocal opponents of casinos.

Having long occupied the pier, the Association insists it will refuse to hand over its control of the area to foreign casino operators, accusing them of trying to usurp what the group’s head Yukio Fujiki called its ” sanctuary.”

Hiroyuki Minakami, the group’s public relations officer, agrees.

“This whole casino business is tantamount to colonization,” Minakami said at an Association press conference held in response to Hayashi’s statement.

The Association is calling for an alternative way to redevelop Yamashita pier that will not feature casinos, such as using reclaimed areas as a venue for international exhibitions, Disney cruises and Formula 1 races.

He predicts that international exhibitions alone will rack up £ 80 billion in tax revenue and that other venues proposed by the group will easily generate profits big enough to match the city’s estimates.

“Yamashita pier is a beautiful place,” Minakami said. “We are confident that we can develop it without resorting to casinos.”

The group, meanwhile, blasts the economy driven by the resort’s casino as “painful,” citing the likelihood that the success of such a business would be based on the exploitation of gambling addicts.

“Yokohama insisted that such a resort would increase our tax revenues by 120 billion euros, but where does all this money come from?”Minakami said.

“If it’s all about luring Yokohama residents to gamble and bleed, the city is no different than an octopus that keeps itself alive by taking a bite out of its legs,” he said.

“That would be very impolite.”

Japan times LTD. All rights reserved.